On Speaking Terms
by Ochita
Summary: Ever wonder why Aoshi is so quiet? He has a funny problem with talking. Being too intelligent for your own good is such a drag. Can Misao help him out? AU AxM


Ochita: I do not own it very muchly sooo!

Aoshi-chan: Your speech is... atrocious.

Ochita: At least I can speak right!

Aoshi: 'Correctly'...appearently that...isn't possible...for you.

**The problem**

A tall boy sighed as he walked down the sidewalk, contemplating what he was going to do this year about…a number of things. He'd just moved here for…reasons. His four friends were right behind him, silently trying to hold in their laughter at the sight of the brooding guy. Just then the blind 16 year old of the three walked up laughing and cuffed his friend around the neck, holding him in a head lock, waving his hand about in front of him as he spoke, in an envisioning like way, "Think about it Okashira! Calculus honors, Physics honors, P.E for the athletic and, Language arts 2!"

Aoshi turned around and punched his friend but not hard enough to really faze him. Hanya could be so irritating sometimes. So Aoshi was a little slow to speech, it wasn't like his brain was slow or something. Being a senior in every honors class for the intellectually advanced…except for language arts. Why? That was a long story.

"Com'on Okashira, it isn't that bad." Bishimi spoke in his hissing voice, "You might not get slapped too many times this year!"

All of his friends began laughing and the tall young man ignored them with a stoic expression on his face, as always. In reality he'd never felt so embarrassed. He'd gotten slapped by girls soooooo many times because he said things at the wrong time. Why was he cursed with this stupid disorder? It wasn't even in the frikken psychology books.

The problem with Shinomori Aoshi had started from the beginning. From the time Makimachi Mamuru had picked him off the street as a child to the time when they'd discovered his little 'problem'.

He'd tried to tell himself it didn't matter and even Hanya, his best friend said it didn't matter. He was Hanya's eyes and the younger blind boy was Aoshi's mouth. But the facts remained the same, he still had a problem.

In short his vocabulary was too big.

Now many would wonder how this would be a problem but it was a biiiiiiiiggg problem. Stringing a sentence together for the tall young man was like answering a one paragraph essay out loud for everyone else. Every word always seemed to be able to be replaced by a better word. What people conveyed in two paragraphs Aoshi could convey in one sentence. There was only one problem, no one waited for him.

Especially girls.

They all spoke so fast and asked so many questions that required more than one word answers and as Aoshi tried to say what he meant, he was forced to speak quickly…speak without thinking. He would answer the question she'd asked before the most recent, and the answer usually ended up getting him slapped. That is why he and Hanya would double date. When a girl asked a question Aoshi's best friend would reword it into a 'yes' or 'no' question.

But Aoshi was good at writing. What ever he wanted to say he could write out within two seconds. It was like his hands knew the words that he wanted to say but his mouth didn't. He always gave a girl the expression that he was 'mysterious' and 'sexy' but after three days with him they decided that he was just 'cold', which wasn't the case. If he wanted to keep a girl he had to write her notes to communicate with her. He could never just talk to her.

They'd figured it out after Aoshi had written on the board what he'd wanted to say during an oral book report. The eighth grade teacher had called his care taker, Mamuru, and asked that Aoshi get a small key board to communicate to his fellow students with. Apparently his teacher thought that the silent boy was mute. When Aoshi had gotten home Mamuru grabbed the tall boy by the ear and dragged him to the psychiatrist. There they found out that Aoshi was 'special'. To smart, couldn't decide which words to use when spoken to.

Being Okashira that didn't really matter, he just wrote a note to anyone, explaining anything and everything that he wanted done.

But now it was school time and it was back to being slapped by girls and yelled at by the language arts teacher.

Hiyotoko smiled down at his friend and said, "Don't worry Okashira. You'll pass this time. You're smarter that all of us."

Aoshi remained silent but nodded ever so slightly showing his appreciation for the compliment. This small problem had always reeked havoc on Aoshi's sense of pride. He'd always wished he possessed Hanya's mouth. The smooth talking blind guy had a knack for speaking to anyone.

They arrived at school and all split up going in different directions to there classes. Aoshi looked at the card he'd gotten at senior orientation. Language arts came first.

_Oh joy._

Aoshi sat down in the back of the class hoping to the kami-sama that he wouldn't be noticed. The rest of the class filed in and the bell rang, no one sitting next to the older guy, not seeing him at all.

"Sagara-san!"

"Oi!" A spiky haired boy acknowledged the teacher, a smirk on his face, before leaning back and putting his feet up on the desk.

_Disrespectful, impertinent, rude, discourteous, impolite, insolent, unmannerly, audacious, cheeky. _

He scrolled down the list of words he had in his head for the way the guy acted. If asked to describe him in one word, Aoshi wouldn't have been able to decide. If asked to give a description of his appearance the silent young man would take a minute to string together the right words into a sentence.

"Shinomori."

"…Present." He answered stoically.

Just than a girl came running in at a blinding speed.

"Sumimasen, scuz' me, pardon me. Wooopsie!!!" She shouted as she tripped and crashed into the ground, papers and books flying everywhere, a few of which Aoshi caught before they hit him in the face.

"You're late again itachi. Of course this shouldn't surprise me, you were late to almost every class last year."

"Uk! You teach History and Language arts too?" The girl groaned.

"Sit down next to the icicle over there itachi, and shut up." The teacher growled, his amber eyes glinting with irritation as the girl mouthed his words, mocking him.

Aoshi almost widened his eyes at that…almost. He looked up at the fuming girl heading in his direction and realized to his horror that she was beautiful. Beautiful expressive deep green eyes, long raven hair tied back in a braid, batting at her thighs, very short and thin but with a hidden strength he could see in her swift walk.

She smiled happily at him and sat down.

"H-"

"Shut up Itachi!" the teacher snarled.

The girl kept quiet after giving him a glare. Aoshi had a mental picture of a chibi him, kneeling down, and hugging the teacher around the knees saying, "Domodomodomodomodomodomodomo."

He shook the thought from his head and just kept his mouth shut. He listened to the teacher, he'd heard this lesson already. If only he didn't fail when it came to applying these skills as he spoke.

The class ended with a book report due by the end of the month, thankfully a written one, and a few other easy assignments that could easily be done in a few minutes.

"Hi, I never got to-"

Aoshi panicked got out a piece of paper and wrote a note before she could finish. He placed it into her hand, sliding his hand along her wrist, turned and strode out quickly.

* * *

Misao looked down at the note she'd just been given from the tall handsome guy.

_Precious girl, precious face,_

_Speaking here in not the right place._

_Skin of snow, eyes of jade_

_In my mind, your smile will not fade._

_See you again, I promise, do not fret_

_At the Aoi-ya around sunset._

_P.S Onegai shimasu ;_

Misao's face was burning bright red after she red the note. She sort of giggled at the end. She walked out the door and went to break, they had a block schedule. She ran towards the lunch area and met up with her best friend Kaoru.

"Misao-chan! O genki desu? What's with the smile, I mean that's even big for you?" Kaoru asked.

"Kaoru-san! Never better. OMG I gotta tell you what happened in English class, which by the way that old fart Saitou teaches." Misao growled out at the end.

Kaoru giggled, "Well, what happened?"

"I met this really hot guy in class, which was really weird because he looked like a senior or something, but Saitou-sensei wouldn't even let me talk to him, I know he's new, no one that good looking could go unnoticed by me! Anyway, when I tried to talk to him he gave me this and walked away."

Misao showed Kaoru the note and the older girl gasped at the content.

"Oooooooo, Misao has a mysterious admirer!" Kaoru teased.

"Ssshhhh."

"So what did he look like."

"The hottest thing on two legs."

"Uh uh, that would be Kenshin." Kaoru snorted moving her head back and forth.

"Psh. The she-male?"

"Hey. Kenshin is not a-"

"Kidding Koaru. He was really tall and masculine with icy sea-foam green eyes, with black hair that hung down in his face and…." Misao had hearts in her eyes as she went off into a daydream.

"We have to go shopping before sunset!!!" Kaoru shouted happily.

"Yeah!"

* * *

It was lunch time and Aoshi was sitting down at a table with Beshimi, Hiyotoko, Shikijo, and Hanya. "So how'd classes go?" Hanya asked.

"I think I'm going to die in precal." Beshimi hung his head.

"At least you made it to precal." Hiyotoko mopped, "I'm still in A2."

(Everyone sweatdrops.)

"That's because you're an idiot." Shikijo grinned.

"Hey shut up!" The pudgy young man snarled.

Aoshi took out a small wooden pointed stick and began to scratch onto the ground. To anyone else it would've looked like he was trying to wear the piece of wood down but that wasn't the case. He was writing.

Hanya, who wasn't even looking in his direction laughed, "Okashira, you found a pretty girl? You're going to meet her at the Aoi-ya? Wow, this'll be great…or funny depending on the conversation."

Aoshi felt the heat rise to his cheeks and he had half a mind to smack his friend but decided it might cause a scene.

"Wow, just got here and you're giving up on your crush?" Shikijo laughed.

_Scratch scratch_

"Oh, forgetting so soon? Maikimach Mi-somethin'r'other." Hiyotoko smirked.

_Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch_

"It's amazing what went through the mind of 12 year old Shinomori Aoshi, present Okashira of the Oniwabanshu." Bishimi grinned.

_Scratch scratch scratch_

"I couldn't resist." Hanya laughed.

"Hanya-kun!!!"

"Oh com'on, it was obvious, I didn't even have to look in the journal Makimachi-sama made you right things down it. Every time he spoke of seeing his little…Mi…?"

"Misao." Aoshi answered.

"Yeah, every time, you were all ears. You've never even seen her face and you'd decided you liked her. So do you still like her? I hear today she'll be awake to see us, what'll you say?"

"You're being…insufferably…prying." Aoshi gave his best friend an icy glare.

"Not much of an opening line but, hey, whatever floats your boat."

"Hanya-kun!"

"Oi, Misao-chan, did you get to meet your leader last night?" Kaoru asked Misao as she was looking at a nice pair of jeans.

Whatever Kaoru did, she'd never get Misao to wear a skirt.

"Iie. I was asleep and he left to go to work or whatever before I got up."

"What's his name again?"

"Shinomori…Ao-…I can't remember."

Kaoru sighed and put a hand on Misao's shoulder. She knew it had been difficult accepting her real grandfather, Mamuru's, death. She was afraid that finally meeting her leader would bring back the memory of Mamuru having that position. Her grandfather had died while Misao was 13 but the headquarters in Kyoto had been found out by a few unsavory characters so the leader of the Oniwabanshu decided to move to the new headquarters in Tokyo.

"Oh, Misao-chan, I'm sure your new Okashira is a wonderful man."

"Domo Kaoru-san." Misao sighed.

Trying to lighten the mood Kaoru swiped a black chained miniskirt and giggled, "How about this."

"Not if you threatened my life."

Magically a bokken pops into Kaoru's hand, "**_ARE YOU SURE?_**"

o.0

Misao would've countered with her kunai save she'd ran out at school after Sano had called her a smelly weasel. Knowing that if she didn't comply she'd end up with a cracked skull Misao backed away and said, "On second thought."

In the end Kaoru had Misao at her house decked out in said skirt, with navey convers, a dark jade shirt, jewelry and makeup. The younger girl refused to let the older do hair. After that Misao was prepared to go home to the Aoi-ya, funny how the guy had picked that place when she lived there. Kaoru giggled and waved Misao goodbye as her friend left the house, back pack slung over one shoulder.

As she arrived she saw her secret admirer leaning against the wall of the Aoi-ya. He was wearing a white and yellow trench coat that somehow went well with him. He turned his head to the side and acknowledged her with a small nod. Misao approached slowly, her heart pounding in her chest. She stood in front of him and smiled. He did nothing before holding his hand out and saying in an icy cold voice, "Shinomori Aoshi."

Misao's face burned and she felt her head spin as she asked almost dizzily, "The Okashira has a son?"

That seemed to cause the boy to back up, eyes widening ever so slightly.

"Who are you?" He asked suspiciously, his hand reaching into his coat.

"Makimachi Misao. How come I didn't hear about you? I mean I should know if my Okashira has a son." Misao began muttering, almost starting to pace.

"I'm not his son."

Misao spun around and stared at him quirking an eyebrow asking, "His ototo-chan(1)?"

"Iie."

"His oitoko-chan(2)?"

"Iie."

"Then who the hell are you?!" She asked pointing at him almost accusingly.

"Shinomori Aoshi, Okashira of the Oniwabanshu." Was the stunning, stoic reply.

Translation:

1. Little brother

2. Little cousin

Review Onegai!!!!! I would appreciate it very muchly soooooo!!!! Domo for reading! Gomen nasai, if its sort of out of character with Aoshi-chan's friends and all but they don't really have much personality in the series because you only see them a few times, very muchly so. I'll try to put them more in character or what ever.


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